The Reesurgence

Reese Witherspoon’s Mom Signs Her Text Messages, Too

Parents Using Technology is, of course, a well-worn topic for sitcoms and the Internet alike (nary a day passes without someone on our Instagram feed posting a screen shot of a text from a mom asking “who is this iggy azaleea ???” or a dad sending a picture of a pile of leaves or something). And, we learned yesterday, thanks to an Instagram shared by none other than Reese Witherspoon, that—this is hard to process, we know—even celebrities are subject to these sorts of texts from their own parents.

Witherspoon shared this screenshot of texts featuring “words of encouragement” from her mother, presumably either right before the Golden Globes, or afterwards.

Lots of great stuff here:

— We admire and appreciate Reese’s mom’s commitment to the sign-off, ending almost every single one of her texts with the heart emoji and “mom” — always have to be sure your recipient (in this case, your daughter) knows it’s you! We also like that there is one text where she fumbled the sign-off—we're all human, even, improbably, those of us related to Reese Witherspoon.

— We also like, and relate to, the fact that there are six texts in a row here . . . without a response from Reese. Moms love to text in a flurry like this, no response from you required. In fact, if you do respond, they probably won’t see it until a week or two later.

— The sentiment here is, of course, very sweet. And it’s nice to think of Reese checking her phone during a round of small talk with Owen Wilson or a producer who’s friends with her husband, and seeing these messages and smiling briefly and then putting her phone back in her purse and saying, “Oh, just my mom!” before taking another sip of pinot grigio.

— We are very intrigued by that final, curious “Coffee” sign-off, which diverges from the “<3 Mom” pattern. What does it mean?!?! Is she telling Reese that she is enjoying some excellent coffee at the moment? Is she encouraging Reese to find some coffee of her own? Is that their code name for Matthew McConaughey??